faded lettering
by irmaida
Summary: "For the first few months that Gale is away, letters and pictures can be expected at least once a week. But soon, the letters become not only shorter but also fewer and farther between. And, well, it's lonely." Gale/Katniss/Peeta, modern day AU. In which Gale is a long-distance trucker and Katniss is tired of waiting for him to come home. For Madeline.


_faded lettering _

summary: "For the first few months that Gale is away, letters and pictures can be expected at least once a week. But soon, the letters become not only shorter but also fewer and farther between. And, well, it's lonely." Gale/Katniss/Peeta, modern day AU. In which Gale is a long-distance trucker and Katniss is tired of waiting for him to come home. For Madeline.

\

"Give it back! Thief! _Give it back!_"

Gale Hawthorne is almost falling asleep over his coffee when the shrill pitches of a girl yelling nearby wake him up.

"Now, quiet down, little miss. Or I'll have to knock you out, and I don't like hitting ladies," drawls an enormous red-haired man. In one hand he holds a small purse, which he tosses from one hand to the other as the girl frantically tries to retrieve the bag. He looks calm, bored almost, and seems to be silently laughing at the girl's desperate attitude.

"I'm going to call the police!" she threatens, but the man only laughs.

"Call the police? With what? Your hand? Isn't your cell phone in this lovely purse of yours?"

Gale gets up as the girl continues to shriek. Other heads are turning, but they don't seem particularly inclined to help the girl at all. That's the way things are at this place, he supposes. He wonders what a girl like her is doing at such a place. He sighs.

"Give the girl her bag back," he growls, trying to sound as menacing as possible.

The guy turns towards him. He looks taller than Gale had supposed up close - and much more muscular - and probably a good three or so years older too. "Who's going to make me?" the man asks, his tone going from calm and mocking to ice-cold and absolutely terrifying in that one sentence.

Gale gulps, but he's never been one to back down from a fight. He stands up to his full height. "I am."

The next thing Gale knows, a gigantic fist is heading towards his face. It's like he's seeing everything in slow motion, and to make matters worse, he appears to be frozen in place. He has just enough time to close his eyes and then -

The fist never came. He opens his eyes, and everything is back in real time. The girl stands, eyes wide, baseball bat in hand, looking down at the unconscious body of the red-haired man.

Gale blinks, crouches down, and extracts the girl's bag from the man's clenched fist. "Um, here's your bag."

"Thanks," says the girl tensely, snatching the purse. She rummages through the contents, thoroughly counting all the money pieces one by one. They stand awkwardly, and Gale gets a close look at the girl for the first time. She's pretty, he supposes, with long brown hair in a thick single braid and large gray eyes.

"What's your name?" he asks.

"Catnip," she mumbles, still tense. She clutches at her bag as if she is worried that someone else will pop up and take it.

"I'm Gale Hawtorne," he tells her. He pauses. "What's a lady like you doing at a place like this? Don't you know that this is, well, a man's place?"

Catnip frowns. "I'm not a lady."

Gale looks down at the unconscious man. "Yeah, I think I figured that out."

She laughs. After a stunned second, Gale laughs too.

\

They end up exchanging phone numbers and sharing cheap coffee together. He learns that the girl's real name is _Katniss _Everdeen, and she is fifteen years old, two years younger than him. She lives with her mother and younger sister. Her father died a year ago in a car accident, and her mother has been practically comatose since, leaving Katniss to fend for herself and her younger sister, Prim, who she loves more than anyone else in the world.

He tells Katniss that he is seventeen years old, with two younger brothers and a baby sister. His father died when he was very young. His mother works her fingers to the bone every day of the year running the family Dry Cleaning business by herself. He tries to help out whenever he can by helping with the business or by driving around rigs.

"What's a rig?" Katniss asks.

Gale stares at her, dumbfounded. "It's what I call my truck - well, not mine, but I drive it often. You know, one of those gigantic eighteen-wheel trucks. I go cross country, carrying strawberries or something."

They talk almost the entire afternoon. He doesn't even realize that it's dark until he looks outside and doesn't see the sun. Katniss seems to notice the darkness at the same time.

"I should go," she says.

"Okay," he says. "Um, do you need a ride?" Then he remembers that he walked here today. "Or, um, actually, Mom's using the car today. Can you drive?"

Katniss stares at him blankly. "I'm fifteen."

"Oh," says Gale sheepishly.

Katniss smiles. "Yeah, I can drive."

He walks her to the car. He also offers to drive, as it is probably safer and, you know, legal, but Katniss laughs it off.

"Didn't your father die in a car accident last year?" Gale asks. He regrets the question as soon as it is out of his mouth. Stupid, insensitive him.

"Yeah," says Katniss softly. "But I'm not afraid of driving because of him."

He gets in the passenger seat and doesn't say anything more about it. Katniss drives carefully, eyes on the road. They pass by a bus.

"He was on a bus when he died," she says softly. "It was the bus driver's fault. So I'm okay with driving small cars like this."

"What about the big ones?"

Katniss says nothing.

\

"Smile!"

As the camera flashes, Gale smiles wide and tries not to blink. Usually he hates taking pictures and can only muster a scowl. But today, he doesn't even have to fake the smile. He grins a genuine grin, tucking Catnip under his arm. After three years of knowing her, he doesn't have to look to know that she is smiling too.

"It's beautiful!" croons the photographer in the studio. "I love taking photos of newlyweds. You always look so young and respendent and in love."

\

Being friends with Gale had been easy. Transitioning to lovers had been even easier. And getting married had just seemed completely, absolutely natural. She's eighteen, he's twenty.

Katniss never thought that she'd be the type to get married on a whim, to get swept off her feet by a man. But when Gale had proposed, on one knee and everything, offering her his grandmother's ring, she'd found it impossible to say no. Not only that, but Gale had been a promise of something secure and safe and more than her, and he had been the first guy to ever take notice of her, and it wasn't like there was anything at home or school preventing her. So she had said yes and gotten married. And when she'd told Gale _no large vehicles and no kids,_ Gale had agreed to them without a single question.

Yes, loving Gale had been easy, very easy. It isn't until a week as newlyweds, on their honeymoon in Florida, that they run into their first argument.

"Come on, Katniss," he begs. "I've put up with your big car phobia for three years. Get on. It won't be the end of the world."

"No," insists Katniss. "Gale, I thought you understood. Your truck; it's too big; it's enormous, Gale. A road trip on six wheels. I can't do it." Her eyes are pleading, frightened, vulnerable.

Gale sighs. "Katniss, please. I don't understand how you think motorcycles are safe but not my truck. I've been driving for years now - you know that!" When Katniss stares at him stony-faced, he sighs. "All right, Katniss. I just wanted the two of us to drive back home to California, instead of taking the plane. I _hate _planes."

Katniss looks down at her feet. "I'm sorry Gale." She looks up, eyes bright. "How about this? I'll go home on the plane, and you can drive here. I'll be waiting for you at home, maybe even with a surprise."

He smiles and kisses Katniss on the cheek. "Five days, Catnip."

\

She ends up waiting two weeks.

She worries insanely. She thinks of her father and wonders if something similar could have happened to Gale. No, not Gale.

"Calm down, Katniss," says Prim, her younger sister. "I'm sure he's just been held up by traffic or something. Come on, I'll take you to the bakery and we can buy some bread."

Katniss smiles. She wonders what she would do without Prim: her delicate little sister, who sometimes ends up being stronger than her. They head towards the bakery together, and Prim comforts her while they pick out some two loaves of white bread. And when the time to pay comes, Prim brushes away Katniss's offers and pulls out her wallet.

"That will be five dollars and eighty-nine cents," says the man at the cashier. His flour-dusted name tag reads _Peeta Mellark. _Prim beats her to the counter and slaps onto the counter a five dollar bill, three quarters, a dime, and four pennies - all under five seconds. Trust Prim to have planned for such a moment.

Peeta takes the money and has Prim sign the receipt, but he gives the bag of baked bread to Katniss. Katniss opens it and realizes that there is an extra chocolate croissant in there. She opens her mouth to let the baker know, but he stops her with a gentle nod and a smile.

"Thank you," she says. How had he known the chocolate croissants were her favorite?

\

Gale finally does come home, an exact ten days longer than the promised five days. "I'm sorry," he apologizes. "I got held up. Met up with some old friends and stuff, took a longer route than I'd planned, enjoyed the scenery. But I missed you so much, Catnip. I even got you flowers and chocolate."

Katniss sighs. She can't stay mad. She gives Gale a large hug and accepts the gifts.

"One more thing," Gale adds. "I got a new job."

"What?" Katniss exclaims. "That's great!"

Gale nods. "Driving a rig for a company. In a few months or so I may even have my own eighteen-wheel truck, can you imagine? Don't worry, _you _won't ever have to ride it. I'll only use it for work purposes."

Katniss sighs in relief, then frowns again. "Does this mean you'll be away from home often?"

Gale looks down. "I'll write often. And send checks and little gifts. I promise, Katniss."

\

For the first few months that Gale is away, he really does. Letters and pictures can be expected at least once a week. But soon, the letters become not only shorter but also fewer and farther between. And, well, it's lonely, living with just her younger sister and a comatose mother. And the cat, of course, Buttercup, but he doesn't really count.

"Look at me," she complains to Prim one day. "I'm eighteen years old. I should be in college, or out partying with my friends, or something. It's Friday! And what am I doing instead? I'm sitting here, at home, on a _Friday night_ waiting for my husband to come home. He promised that he'd be coming this week in his last card, and I even phoned last night to make sure." She waves the postcard with its slanted fading letters in front of her younger sister's face as evidence.

Prim pets Buttercup and sighs. "The bakery?" she offers. "We are low on bread. Plus I think they sell jam there now too."

She nods, and they go to the usual bakery. Prim manages to jostle her way to the counter and pay, again. And this time, the baker not only puts in a chocolate croissant but also a bag of primrose cookies.

She's about to bring it up - free food twice? What baker would do that? Then she recognizes the man. "You went to my high school," she says to Peeta as realization dawns.

Peeta nods and seems to blush ever so slightly. "Yeah," he answers. "And I go to the local college. What college do you go to?"

"I don't go to college," she says. "We couldn't afford it."

"Oh."

"But," she continues, "we have enough money that we don't really need your charity. How much are these croissants and cookies for regular customers?" She reaches for her wallet, although in reality she can't quite afford it. Buying such pastries would be, quite frankly, a waste of money. But now that she's said it, she can't back out. Her pride won't let her.

Peeta shakes his head. "No, it's okay. Put the money you saved towards paying for college for Prim. How old is she?"

Katniss's eyes widen. How does he even know Prim's name? And how did he guess so accurately about her hopes for Prim to go to college? She feels like snapping back with a retort, but he looks so genuine. So she smiles. "Thank you, Peeta." She looks at Prim, who is waiting for her outside. "She _will_ go to college, you know. She's fourteen, by the way."

\

Things with Gale get worse. On her nineteenth birthday, Gale finally comes over to visit. He brings flowers and strawberry croissants.

"They're your favorite, right?" he asks.

"The chocolate ones are," she says. Katniss manages a smile that looks more like a grimace and eats the croissants anyway. "It's the thought that counts."

Gale seems to have changed, but he's still Gale, she reminds herself. Gale who calls her 'Catnip' and buys her flowers and knows her better than anyone else. They talk about his rig for a while.

"It's almost mine," Gale says with a dreamy sigh. "Just a few more trips, a little more money..." Katniss doesn't care for cars, but she can somewhat relate - she always feels accomplished when Prim's for-college savings account reaches a milestone.

"I'm happy for you," Katniss says. "So long as you don't make me ride on that rig with you."

Gale smiles. "One day, Katniss. One day. But I won't push you. Not yet." He kisses her on the cheek.

\

Gale stays for a grand total of two weeks before leaving again.

She starts going to the bakery more often - she's bored, and she can use Peeta to catch up on her old high school friends - or so she tells herself.

"How's Madge doing?" she asks.

"Madge?" Peeta repeats. "Oh, well she got into a really good college on the East Coast, I think. I haven't really heard from her. But, um, Clove, she goes to the same school as me. You know her, right?"

Eventually Peeta becomes her confidant. She talks to him about her issues with Gale - "I just wish he would come home" and Prim - "She's so smart and talented; if she can't get into a college because we can't pay for it I may just kill myself" - and her mother - "Not better. I don't think she's changed at all since I was fourteen." She even tells him about her father and the bus accident.

One day, Peeta is talking to her a funny story about his father when his mother comes and chases them out. "Dirty poor trash!" the woman yells. "Peeta, get your girlfriend out of here! She's no good!"

"She's not my girlfriend!" Peeta yells back, but his face is bright red and Katniss's stomach is doing funny flip-flops.

"I'm sorry," she tells him later. "You should stop spending so much time with me."

To which Peeta replies: "I like spending time with you, Katniss."

\

Gale promises to come home for Prim's fifteenth birthday, but naturally, he doesn't.

Katniss doesn't know why she gets her hopes up anymore. But she does get a small postcard - it's mainly about how he finally got his rig, and enclosed in the envelope is a large photograph of him with the rig, a gigantic smile on his face. Scribbled onto the bottom as a postscript reads a small note in faded lettering: _Oh, tell Prim happy birthday. Sorry I couldn't make it._ She looks again at the photo. He looks happy. Katniss wonders if Gale ever gets lonely the way she does, and she looks again at the photo. Reflected in the mirror of the shiny truck is the face of a pretty blonde girl.

She tries not to rip the photograph. She's going to enjoy Prim's birthday. She goes to visit Peeta at the bakery and is pleasantly surprised when Peeta surprises her with a large red cupcake, one that he insists she must receive as a present. Peeta even supplies candles. As beautiful Prim blows them out, and cameras flash, she thinks, _This is a _family.

If only Gale were home.

\

"I'm home!"

It's been a week after Prim's birthday. Gale comes home with his shiny gigantic rig a week late. She's not sure whether she should be happy or upset.

She decides to be happy. Forget it. At least he's here, right?

"Sorry, Catnip," Gale says. "But, hey, I got my rig! Do you want to go for a ride? This baby rides real sweet -"

"No," she interrupts. "No."

Gale stares at her, stony-faced. "Now, don't get so upset, Catnip. Just get in. If you would just try, you would love it."

"No."

"_Yes_!"

"_No!_"

"Stop!" exclaims Prim, coming between them. "Gale, _I'll _go ride in that rig with you, okay?"

Gale softens, just for a second. "All right, Prim. You'll absolutely love it." He throws one last glance at Katniss before putting an arm around Prim and leading her to the rig.

Katniss watches them drive off. She feels a pool of dread forming in her stomach, but she can't quite place why.

\

She waits for the pair to come back, staring out the window and preparing herself for the storm of an argument that she is sure will occur when Gale comes back. She sighs to herself. Maybe they won't argue. Maybe things will be okay. Maybe everything will go back to the way it was. Eventually she falls asleep.

"Katniss, wake up." Katniss's eyes flutter open to see the worried face of Peeta leaning over her.

"Oh," she says blearily. "I must have fallen asleep; I was so tired. Are Prim and Gale back yet?"

Peeta suddenly goes somber, and Katniss somehow knows what Peeta is going to say before he says it.

"Katniss, Prim is dead."

\

She goes into a comatose state, similar to what happened to her mother after their father died. She drifts in and out of consciousness. Usually a nervous Peeta is hovering over her. Once she finds her mother by her bedside, saying goodbye and holding two large suitcases. After that she doesn't see her mother again - only Peeta. And she never sees Gale. Or Prim.

One day she tries talking to Peeta. "How long has it been since Prim... since she..." she trails off and swallows. "How long have I been... like this?"

"Six days," Peeta answers.

Katniss nods. Only a week ago Prim had been bright and beautiful and alive. "Where's Gale?" she asks Peeta next. Her throat is too tight. "Is... did he die too?"

"No," answers Peeta. Katniss isn't sure on whether she's glad or not.

"Then why hasn't he come to visit me?" she asks plainly.

"He... he left on his rig. He left you these." Peeta's hands' shake as he hands Katniss a rather rumpled file of papers, and her eyes quickly scan over the faded lettering. She opens them and laughs, a slightly hysterical, cold laugh.

"Get me a pen, please, Peeta," she requests.

He gets her a pen. She signs the divorce papers and puts them back into the file.

Peeta doesn't ask what the papers are. He may suspect - he's always been so good at reading her - but he doesn't say anything. He only asks her, gently, "Are you okay?"

She smiles. "I feel great." She really does. She feels _free_. "Better than I have in a long time."


End file.
